Mission From Moscow

In 1975 Microbiologist Alex Goldfarb, then 28, was among the fortunate Jews in the Soviet Union allowed to emigrate. He became an assistant professor at the Julius and Armand Hammer Health Sciences Center at Columbia University in New York City. After his father David, a geneticist with a worldwide reputation, retired in 1979, he was eventually told that he too could leave the Soviet Union.

In April of 1984 the elder Goldfarb exchanged farewell presents with an American friend, U.S. News & World Report Correspondent Nicholas Daniloff. This led the KGB to ask Goldfarb to invite Daniloff to his apartment, apparently...